Since the advent of the motion picture, automobiles have been prominently featured on screen, serving not just to transport characters from one place to another but also to reveal aspects of the characters’ personalities and serve as important plot devices.

In many cases, a stock model is suitable for a movie or television series, but sometimes modifications to production vehicles are needed to create a memorable automotive costar. The modifications can be as simple as a decorative paint job that gives a vehicle a distinctive look to suit its role or more extreme, such as customizing one model to appear to be another car entirely. Sometimes, on-screen automobiles are modified for better performance. Action movie cars can have weapons added, and sci-fi vehicles often feature futuristic elements that anchor them in another time. 

Whatever the level of customization, the alterations made to movie and television cars help create the automotive characters that serve alongside the human actors and aid in establishing the world in which the story takes place.